Southern pamphlets on secession, November 1860-April 1861

873 Pages·1996·2.05 MB·English

by  Jon L. Wakelyn

Southern Pamphlets On Secession,
title: November 1860-April 1861 Civil War
America
author: Wakelyn, Jon L.
publisher: University of North Carolina Press
isbn10 | asin: 0807822787
print isbn13: 9780807822784
ebook isbn13: 9780807866146
language: English
Secession--Southern States--Sources,
subject United States--History--Civil War, 1861-
1865--Pamphlets.
publication date: 1996
lcc: E458.1.S68 1996eb
ddc: 973.7/13
Secession--Southern States--Sources,
subject: United States--History--Civil War, 1861-
1865--Pamphlets.
Page ii
CIVIL WAR AMERICA
Gary W. Gallagher, editor
Page iii
Southern Pamphlets on Secession
November 1860April 1861
Edited by Jon L. Wakelyn
Page iv
© 1996
The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Southern pamphlets on secession,
November 1860April 1861 / edited by
Jon L. Wakelyn.
p. cm. (Civil War America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8078-2278-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. SecessionSouthern States
Sources. 2. United StatesHistory
Civil War, 18611865Pamphlets.
I. Wakelyn, Jon L. II. Series.
E458.1.S68 1996
973.7'13-dc20 95-49492
CIP
00 99 98 97 96
5 4 3 2 1
Page v
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Chronology of Events, November 1860April 1861 xi
Introduction xiii
Part I.
Prelude to Secession
The Quintessence of Long Speeches Arranged as A 3
Political Catechism . . . (1830)
Maria Henrietta Pinckney,
The Position and Course of the South (1850) 14
William Henry Trescot,
Part II.
The Lower south
The Perils and Duty of the South, . . . 35
Speech Delivered in Talladega, Alabama, November 26,
1860
Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry,
A Sermon, Delivered in St. John's Church, 55
Savannah, On Fast Day, Nov. 28, 1860
Rev. George H. Clark,
The South: Her Peril and Her Duty (November 29, 1860) 63
Rev. Benjamin Morgan Palmer,
The Interest in Slavery of the Southern Non-Slaveholder 78
(December 1860)
James D. B. De Bow,
Letter . . . to the People of Georgia (December 1860) 88
Howell Cobb,
The Right of Secession (December 31, 1860) 101
Judah P. Benjamin,
Remarks on the Special Message on Affairs in South 115
Carolina. Jan. 10, 1861
Jefferson Davis,
State of the Union. Speech . . . Delivered in the House of 143
Representatives, Jan. 15, 1861
John H. Reagan,
The State of the Country (January 1861) 157
Rev. James Henley Thornwell,
Letter to John S. Littell (February 12, 1861) 179
Richard Keith Call,
Page vi
An Address to the Citizens of Alabama, on the 195
Constitution and Laws of the Confederate States of
America, . . . at Temperance Hall, on the 30th of March,
1861
Robert H. Smith,
Part III.
The Upper south
The Border States: Their Power and Duty in the Present 217
Disordered Condition of the Country (December 17,
1860)
John Pendleton Kennedy,
Discourse Delivered on the Day of National Humiliation, 247
January 4, 1861, at Lexington, Kentucky
Dr. R. J. Breckinridge,
Speech . . . on the Resolution Proposing to Retrocede the 262
Forts . . . Delivered in the Senate of the United States,
January 11, 1861
Robert M. T. Hunter,
Speech on the State of the Union, Delivered in the Senate 284
of the United States, February 4, 1861
Thomas L. Clingman,
Speech . . . On the State of the Union, Delivered in the 305
Senate of the United States, February 5 & 6, 1861
Andrew Johnson,
State or Province? Bond or Free? (March 4, 1861) 326
Albert Pike,
Speech on the Proceedings of the Peace Conference and 349
the State of the Union, Delivered in Richmond, Virginia,
March 8, 1861
William C. Rives,
Part IV.
Appendixes
Appendix A. 375
Other Pamphlets on Secession
Pamphlets Published before 1860 375
Pamphlets from the Lower South 380
Pamphlets from the Upper South 389
Pamphlets Published after April 1861 400
Appendix B. 402
"Cornerstone Address" (March 21, 1861)
Alexander H. Stephens,
Index 413
Page vii
PREFACE
During the political crisis of the winter 186061, many of the South's
most important leaders published and widely disseminated pamphlets
in opposition to and support for secession from the Union. Their
rhetoric, thoughts, and arguments concerning specific events and
issues reveal graphically what was at stake during those frantic days
that produced civil war. Although they disagreed over what agitated
them, they all discussed the Republican Party's control of the federal
government and what would happen to their minority, slave-based
section in that fast-growing, dynamic American nation. Fear over the
threatened abolition of slavery illustrates just what that system of
labor meant to all of their lives. Disagreements about what action to
take during that political situation produced deep internal divisions,
yet also a growing, near-calm resolution and unity among the
majority. Thus, in committing their political and social views and
interests to print, those leaders told us much about how political
pressures influenced their personal character and, more important, the
world in which they lived.
But in spite of the pamphlets' importance to the understanding of that
society and its political actions, historians have discussed only a small
number of them. To be sure, some excellent older books by fine
political historians used a few of them to describe brilliantly the issues
and events that led to the Civil War. Modern social historians also
have looked at some of those pamphlets to flesh out many facets of
Southern slave society, including religious values and attitudes toward
slavery. Still, few of those historians of society have applied their
findings to the politics of the secession crisis. Perhaps because of
these differing approaches to the study of the Old South, this major
pamphlet source of both political action and cultural life never has